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September 1, 2016

Dark Age Village

I alluded to the fact a few weeks ago that I was scratch building a Dark Age village. There are lots of nice commercial products available for this period, but when I realized how many I wanted, I decided I'd better try to build some of my own. Besides I enjoy scratch building from time to time and decided to give it a try. These models have actually been finished for a while, but I only got the chance to take pictures last night.

They are made completely from foamcore, balsa wood, and teddy bear fur. I'm afraid I didn't take any WiP photos. I was working without templates and kind of doing everything by eye. I got so caught up in the construction process, I forgot to document any of it (hopefully when I go to add more I can remember what I did)! If you have questions, post them below and I'll try to answer them...

The fences were interesting. My first thought was to make tight waddle fences from wire (like the wattle door on the first building above), but when I turned to Google for inspiration, I found images of some very 'rough' looking fences that seemed to have much more character.

These fences are made from toothpicks and fake bamboo shoots purchased from a craft store. I stumbled on the material by accident while looking for floral wire. The wispy ends had enough flexibility to weave between the posts and I secured them with a bit of liquid superglue. I have six sections, but I easily have enough material from the fake bamboo to make 60...

I am very pleased with the results. I want to build another large house, a main hall, and a church, plus a handful of outbuildings. Besides being great for any Dark Ages era, these would be great for the Medieval period, rural areas of the Renaissance period, and the Rohirrim of Middle Earth!

VT, there's a link above to the actual product under the photo, 'fake bamboo shoots'. The site has one of those scripts that won't let you copy and paste the photos, but I can take a shot with my camera if you like...